GOG.com – “Steam isn’t our biggest competitor, piracy is”

In our recently conducted interview with GOG.com, we covered a spread of issues, but one of the most interesting ones was how GOG felt about its closest competitor Steam. What followed wasn’t something we expected.

When asked about Steam; referring to them as GOG’s closest competition, Trevor Longino, the PR Head of GOG.com replied, “Actually, I’d argue our closest digital competitor is piracy. And they’re even bigger than Steam.”

He further clarified GOG’s position and mentioned that he considered the position of GOG.com rather as an alternative to Steam than a competition. In his words, “We’re not necessarily a competitor for Steam. We’re an alternative. We provide things they don’t–namely, a DRM-free experience, flat pricing world-wide, and goodies and attention to our games and gamers. They provide things that we don’t. Many of the games that we sell are available on Steam as well, and the fact that we do as well as we have in the last year proves that some people find what we’re doing a valuable alternative to Steam.”

“So with that said, the fact that we’ve taken the no-DRM approach makes a lot of sense if you think about who it is that we consider as the largest ‘digital distributor’ in the market: pirates. We’ve deliberately designed our signup, purchase, and download process to be as quick and painless as possible, because if you compare the process of buying a game with DRM to downloading the game from a torrent, the stark difference in simplicity and user-friendliness is boggling,” Longino continued.

He added that their no-DRM policy is a product of many divergent reasons. The burden that DRM levies is principally borne by gamers, with pirates fundamentally not affected. “If you are paying for the game, like you’re supposed to, why should you have to go through all the hoops of permanent Internet connection, copy protection etc.?” he said.

In conclusion, Trevor shared the view that GOG favors; that the gamers should get their due for what they have paid for. There must be no unnecessary loopholes and gamers should be be able to do whatever they want with the games they have purchased.

What do you think about GOG.com’s approach? Is it favorable to your cause? Do let us know.